Dear ISSMGE collegues,

Welcome to the special issue of our ISSMGE Europe newsletter, in which we focus on the upcoming European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ECSMGE24) to be held from 26th – 30th August 2024 in Lisbon, Portugal.

I have recently returned from visiting the location and meeting with the organizing committee, and remain in regular discussion with them. I feel a real sense of excitement and building anticipation, which I wanted to share with you all.

I  encourage you to join us at the event, the biggest conference of its kind in Europe, which promises to bring together the best in our field and share their knowledge through informative and engaging presentations and providing opportunities to meet some of the world’s leading practitioners and engage first-hand with the latest technologies. At the same time, it is a rare opportunity to expose your brand to the biggest gathering of geotechnical engineers in Europe. I hope you find the following information as exciting and inspiring as I did, and I look forward to greeting you at ESMGE24, Lisbon.

Lyesse Laloui, ISSMGE European Vice-president.

Location

The main conference will be held at the Altice Arena, one of the largest arenas in Europe and capable of seating 20,000 people. Situated on the Tagus River, it is only 15 minutes from the Lisbon Old Town.

There has been a great deal of interest from some of our ISSMGE corporate partners willing to support the event through sponsorship and exhibitions. The technical visits will highlight some of their work and their challenges across Lisbon, ranging from subway extentions, to drainage projects and a new hospital.

Papers, Abstracts and Workshops

More than 1,000 abstracts have been submitted to the event representing 71 countries and covering topics such as new developments on structural design, geohazards, risk analysis and safety evaluation, current and new construction methods, environment, water and energy and future city world vision.

Workshops and meetings are equally diverse, and with six rooms available, there will be the opportunity for 24 workshops each day, which you are bound to find something of interest to you.

Social Program

The team has gone above and beyond with their social program, which promises to be a major highlight of the event. The Gala dinner will be held in the beautiful Pavilhão Carlos Lopes, while there will be opportunities for visits to the impressive Pena Palace surrounded by the Parque Natural de Sintra-Cascais and a chance to cruise the Tagus River and visit the National Tile museum.

There are also trips to the Jerónimos Monastery, Ajuda Palace, the stunning Arrábida National Park, and local wineries.

The work and effort by our Portuguese colleagues have been truly impressive, leaving me eager for this highly anticipated special quadrennial event. If you are interested in participating, conducting a workshop, or supporting the event, there is still plenty of time. I urge you to visit the ECSMGE 24 website (https://www.ecsmge-2024.com/) for more details.

We look forward to active participation and sponsorship.

The 3rd ISSMGE European National Assembly (ESA) will be held in London, UK, and online on the 12th of March, 2024. The theme of this event is "Supporting Innovation and Creating a Framework to Accelerate the Transfer of Technology from the Laboratory to the Market.” For those attending in person, a special workshop involving contributions from the insurance, legal, and investment industries will share their experiences with many opportunities to engage, including a group dinner in the evening. The workshop includes accommodation for one national society representative from each of our 38 country societies for two nights at a nearby London hotel. Registration is required for the event and can be done using the following link: https://forms.gle/KgrMZZSckE6fgmE59. Further information will be sent out in the coming weeks. Any queries can be directed to ESG member Dr. Stephen Thomas.

The 3rd ESA is built on the successes of our previous event held in Lausanne, Switzerland. For those who were unable to attend the 2nd ESA on the 6th of September, 2023, the minutes of the assembly are available here.

As we all look forward to the 18th ECSMGE in Lisbon next year, a reminder that preparations have begun for the 19th edition of the European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering in 2028. If you are interested in hosting this important event, please send your submission by February 29th, 2024 to the Office of the European Vice-president by email (vpeurope.issmge@epfl.ch), which should include a letter of intent to host the 19ECSMGE and a bid presentation for the conference.

A reminder for our young ISSMGE members, the European Young Geotechnical Engineers Conference is on the 25th to 29th of June, 2024.  Held at the Popova Kula Winery in Demir Kapija, southeast of Skopje, North Macedonia.

Registration and further information can be found at https://eygec2024.net/.

We are also seeking expressions of interest to host the European Young Geotechnical Engineers Conference in 2026. If your society is interested in attracting our young members to your country, please submit your interest to the European Vice-president by email: vpeurope.issmge@epfl.ch 

The 10th European Conference on Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering was held from June 26th to 28th, 2023, at Imperial College London. The facilities at the University proved to be excellent for the purpose of this conference and the perfect organization of the event by Prof. Lidija Zdravkovic and her team ensured that the conference was a great success.

From over 400 abstracts, which were received initially, eventually 288 full papers have been submitted, out of which 253 were presented orally at 4 parallel sessions. The 347 registered delegates are the largest number of participants ever attending a NUMGE conference. The topics addressed a wide spectrum of geotechnical problems and the standard of the work presented was in general very high. 3 keynote and 9 theme lectures were delivered by internationally acknowledged experts.

Despite being a “European” Conference initiated from the European Regional Technical Committee on Numerical Methods (ERTC7) of the ISSMGE, participants have been attracted from all over the world. A highlight of the conference was the 1st Scott Sloan Honour Lecture established by the Technical Committee on Numerical Methods of the ISSMGE (TC103) which was delivered by Prof. Dave Potts from Imperial College. As a key part of any conference is networking and personal communication an attractive social programme was organized including an evening boat trip on the Thames river.

Sincere thanks are due to Prof. Lidija Zdravkovic and her dedicated team for organizing a memorable event. The next European Conference on Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering will be organized in Graz, Austria in 2027.

Prof. Helmut F. Schweiger, 

Austrian Geotechnical Society President